


An Uncomfortable Reunion

by LeoLove



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: F/M, piers can't handle his emotions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:47:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22097380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeoLove/pseuds/LeoLove
Summary: Piers gets a surprise visit from the champion herself. It's been over half a decade since she defeated Leon, and almost just as long since she's seen Piers. Piers feels guilty about abandoning their friendship the way he did but he knows deep down it was the right thing to do, for both of them. It doesn't make him feel any better that she's just as warm and open to him as she used to be, though.
Relationships: Nezu | Piers (Pokemon)/Reader, Nezu | Piers/Yuuri | Gloria
Comments: 5
Kudos: 110





	An Uncomfortable Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little self indulgent work for Piers. Kind of a slow burn for the first chapter, but there will be at least some romance in it lol  
> Name for Gloria left ambiguous but she is about 20 years old in this timeline. I just kind of assumed she got her starter later than the average kid.  
> Not a great fic but fun to write lol

“Piers!” Marnie calls from the other side of the chain-link fence. For someone who looked so small and so quiet his sister could make herself loud. Her voice stings his ears and rouses him from his sleep.

He grumbles as he sits up, cans clatter around his bare-bones mattress. Springs poke at his bony thighs and legs. The bedroom is directly adjacent to the gym and Gym Leader Marnie had been up late into the night battling this season’s challengers. His eyes sting from sleep deprivation and his head pounds. He presses his forehead into his palm as he yells back, “What’d yah want?!”

Marnie’s head pops around the corner, her soft face expressionless as usual. “A fan’s here to see you.”

  
Piers rolls his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose. This isn’t an uncommon occurrence. He hadn’t been the gym leader for several years now, but every year some of the new challengers want to see who used to run the Spikemuth gym. Occasionally there will be a bold trainer, fresh off of defeating Marnie who come to see him specifically to challenge him. He’d always deny them. He hates the idea that trainers try to measure which of the siblings is stronger. It didn’t matter. Marnie was the leader, and she deserved the admiration more than he did.

  
Sighing he says, “You know what I always tell them. Why’d you wake me for that?”

“Different kind of fan. Get up.”

She ducks back around the corner and he can see her reenter the gym from the window. His body groans as he shifts his weight over to the edge of the mattress to follow her. As he stands up, he stretches. Arms above his head and leaning back, his back pops loudly, sighing once again his body instinctually enters his regular slouched position.  
He doesn’t bother getting dressed. He didn’t want to give the illusion that whoever this was didn’t disturb him. He slept in his pants last night anyway, he just doesn’t feel like searching the room to find where he threw his shirt. Rounding the corner, he can see that Marnie is talking to someone, but with her back to him she’s obstructing his view of this ‘fan.’

Upon hearing his footsteps, Marnie turns around. Her eyes widen and her mouth drops open, instantly looking mortified to see him exit the bedroom as disheveled as he was. Her eyes widen and Piers’ ears just barely pick up on her mumbling, “Oh God.” Piers’ eyebrows scrunch together. She’s never reacted like that before, she’s never cared what’s he’s looked like, so what was that reaction for?

As he approaches, Marnie moves out of the way and his question is answered. He immediately feels his face flush and his stomach wrap itself in a knot.  
It was the champion.

“Hi Piers!” She beams up at him. She’s taller than she used to be, but he still towers over her, which is blatantly obvious as she approaches him. Her grin doesn’t fade, and she has a lively lilt in her voice as she asks, “Can I hug you?”

He can’t seem to catch his bearings or find his words, “Y-yeah sure.” He slowly opens his arms, and she crashes into him, obviously more forceful than she meant to. He glances down at the top of her head pressed into the center of his chest and hugs her back before his eyes move back to Marnie. She says nothing.

It had been years since the last time she had come to see him. They had been close for a little while after she defeated Leon and those weird sword and shield guys, but they hadn’t been in much contact after that. The last time they saw each other was when she visited him at the colosseum when she had heard he’d be there. She had been one of his closest friends. Her and Hop quickly became almost as important to him as his little sister. It broke his heart when he decided to stop making time for them.

“It’s been a while.” She says after a few seconds, pulling away.

“Yeah it has been.” He grins, something he’s always had trouble genuinely doing and even now it’s not fully there. He feels uncomfortable but he also is happy to see her. It’s not like it was her fault they stopped talking. So, while his smile is a struggle, it isn’t because it isn’t real.

Nothing is said for a few moments, Piers is having a hard time picking who to look at. His eyes shift back and forth between Marnie and the champion. Marnie clicks her tongue quietly before saying, “Hey, I don’t mean to be rude but,” The champion turns towards her and Marnie continues, “I’ve got a few challengers lined up and I need the gym. Why don’t you guys head back into the house?”

The champion makes a tiny gasp and beams up at Piers, “Is that okay? I just wanted to come talk with you for a bit.”

And that’s all it took. All at once a wash of happiness and guilt slams against him. She just wants to talk with him.

“Yeah that’s fine.” Placing his hand on one of her shoulders he guides her back through the gate in the chain-link fence. As they walked, he noticed the Pokeballs dangling from her hips, and that she had bought a clip for them that looked similar to his. It forces a smirk to spread across his lips. He has a vivid memory of her saying she thought his clips were cool right after the first time she defeated him.

If she had asked, he would have given her his.

“Excuse the mess.” He says, opening the door to the tiny one room ‘house.’ It is literally one room, excluding the bathroom of course. A tiny kitchen with a table, and two mattresses that lay on the floor beside the window. Mess may not have been the right word. It was cluttered but it wasn’t much trash, except for the cans he knocked over when he first woke up.

She doesn’t say anything about the mess or the state of the place, but he can see it on her face. She’s shocked that gym leaders live like this. Leon was too, when he first saw it. But Piers and Marnie have lived like this for as long as they could remember. The champion silently pulls a chair out from the table before asking, “What’ve you been up to these days?”

Sitting opposite to her he shrugs, “Not much. Mostly just focusing on my music.”

“I really liked your newest album by the way.” She smiles and brushes a strand of hair behind her ear. “Hop and I listen to it all the time in the lab.”

“That’s really good to hear. It was a pain in my ass to make and it felt under appreciated.” It always meant a lot to him to hear people talk about his music. It was one of very few things that he genuinely cares about. Performing, he felt like a completely different man; one that didn’t have to worry about the same things regular Piers has to.

“What have you been up to, marvelous, amazing Champion?” He leans on a hand and smirks, knowing she doesn’t take compliments well.

Just as expected her face turns beet red for a moment and she stammers. Piers grins a little wider before she finally finds her words, “Hop has been studying the dynamax phenomenon a lot these days.”  
“

Has he now?”

“Yeah! He’s been trying to see if non-indigenous Pokémon can also dynamax or if it exclusively effects Galar Pokémon. So, he’s been in contact with a lot of Pokémon we don’t normally get to see.”  
  


"And has he figured it out yet?”

She hums to herself, thinking for a moment before replying. “Well so far the answer has been no; only Galar Pokémon can do it, but he’s still hopeful.” She lights up talking about her friend’s passion project. It’s easy to tell she genuinely cares about the things her friends love. She’d already gone through some of Marnie’s phases, trying to like whatever it is as much as she did.

She leans in just a little more, “That’s actually why I’m here!”

The sides of his mouth twitch downwards, confused. “You know I can’t help with anything to do with that.”

She chuckles lightly, “No, nothing like that.” She reaches towards her belt and unclips a dusk ball. Setting it on the table, she smiles and says, “I’m not asking for help with the research or anything. I saw something at the lab and thought of you.”

He Quirks an eyebrow. “You mean you came all the way out here to show me something?” The words come out harsher than he intended and he internally winces. He’s always had a problem with the way his words come out. Marnie has gotten used to it over the years, but he’s tired of accidently hurting the people he cares about.  
However, the sharpness of his tone seems to have no effect on her. Her smile only deepens, “Not to show you something, to give you a present!” She gestures to the dusk ball on the table. “That’s for you.”

He’s taken aback for a second. His eyes dart from her to the ball, where he feels like he can’t pry his eyes away. The gesture itself makes his chest heavy. They haven’t seen each other in half a decade. After half a decade she saw something that made her think of him and came to hand deliver it to him. His mouth is dry, and he feels guilt about not making an effort to spend time with her. He thought she would forget about him. He suddenly feels like he should go find his shirt, he doesn’t though.

Gingerly, he reaches out to grab the ball. It’s smooth and cold beneath his fingertips. He runs his thumb across the familiar seam. He presses the button, there is a beam of light and his eyes widen as a Pokémon he’d only ever seen in pictures appears in front of him.

It’s a Houndor. It glances between the two of them, but spends no time making the decision to lay at Piers’ feet. His mouth is agape. How could he accept a gift like this? He’s utterly baffled and makes no effort to change his expression. He stammers, “I-I can’t take this.”

The Champion laughs, a light giggle as if she were expecting this to be his reaction. Her eyes melt him as she says without any hesitation, “Consider it make up for all those birthdays I missed.”

A breathy chuckle escapes him before he can stop it, but he is still beyond flabbergasted, everything in him fighting to not return the Pokemon. “Well how would you like me to make up for all of yours, if that’s the case? I can't let such a good deed go unpunished.” He smirks as he says the last part, patting the Houndor on it's head. Its fur was smooth, almost like it wasn't there at all.

“Hmm.” She says in mock focus. Her eyes dart up and away, she presses a finger to her pursed lips, pretending to be deep in thought. She has an air of mischief around her as she thinks.

Piers finds himself staring. She really has developed into a beautiful woman. Beautiful in a conventionally attractive sense and in the sense that her eyes haven’t lost their passionate light that made her fun to be around years ago. His eyes trace her jawline up and then lazily drift over to her lips. Suddenly his mind cuts to a vision of her lips pressed against his, his arms enveloping her in a strong embrace. Blush erupts across his cheeks and ears when he realizes the thought has entered his head. Yet, the image stays. His arms around her waist, her hand caressing his cheek and then sliding back into his hair.

His heart pounds. This isn’t the time for this. There is never a time for this.

She was merely a friend.

A very kindhearted, bubbly, beautiful, friend that went above and beyond to make him happy simply on the principle, completely forgetting the fact that he had neglected her friendship because he didn’t want people to talk and-

Fuck.

His heart and his mind in tandem, fly at a million miles a minute. The more he lets his mind ramble the harder his heart beats, and, in response, the more his mind rambles.

He just finished forming the thought, ‘If I can just get through this meeting, I’ll be fine’, when she finally gives her response.

She smiles sincerely as she says something that makes Piers’ heart leap into his throat, “You’ll just have to spend more time with me.”


End file.
